Home | How It Works | Stats Login | Register         Case: Unfair Assessment I have been a successful middle school teacher. I know it sounds strange when I call myself successful, but I have received recognitions at the school and county levels for the quality of my teaching. I have a big dilemma this year. I have two students who are not your ordinary students. Selena is a Hispanic student who is an English Language Learner, but her English proficiency is quite high. She fully participates in all class activities, she functions well in group and individual work, and she is always motivated. She is an ideal student. However, she never makes passing grades on tests. Her current grade is an F. Shelly is a White student. She shows no interest in course activities. You cannot even know if she listening or not most of the time. She chooses not to do group work. If I force her, she does not really contribute. She also does not turn in any assignments. What puzzles me is that she usually receives the highest grades in tests. Her current grade in my course is a high B. If she had turned in the assignments, her grade would be an A. The course grade in my class is determined mainly based on what students make on tests, because I feel that tests are the only means for me to know whether students have retained what they learned or not. Lately I have been thinking that my grading is not doing justice to Selena. At the same time, I think Shelly does not deserve a B with the attitude she has displayed. I need to revise my assessment system. Please help me with this. Solution: (Rates are posted for this solution!) I think that, in the past, unfair assessments have been a major issue in education. With the advent of new and innovative assessment strategies, however, there are many ways to circumvent these issues. I have students very similar to the one's you described in my own classroom. I have a Hispanic male that is one of my hardest workers in the classroom. His work is always organized and thorough, yet his tests are always failing. The way that I resolved this issue was to give his test orally. His grades immediately improved, showing that he knew the information. He just couldn't display it on a traditional assessment. Fortunately, he had an IEP that allowed me to easily arrange the oral examination. This would be logistically difficult without a co-teacher, however. Another option would be to provide performance assessments throughout the term. This allows the hard workers to truly shine, and it forces the lazy students to work for their grade. While providing this variation in assessment will not completely fix the problem (we can never completely get rid of traditional assessment under the current regime), it will begin to level the playing field a bit. You can also see how truly creative and enthusiastic your students can be towards the topic when their assessments are not so rigid.